Lewis Hamilton took out by team-mate as Sebastian Vettel lost all-time great Formula 1 race | FormulaNASCAR
"Lewis Hamilton took out by a team-mate as Sebastian Vettel lost all-time" 
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FormulaNASCAR-Ahead of this weekend's Canadian Grand
Prix, Mirror Sport remembers one of the greatest races ever to take place on
the Montreal track – featuring a record-breaking comeback from Jenson Button.
The Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve has played
host to some iconic races over the years, and the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix might just be the
best of them.
It remains the longest race in Formula 1 history at a shade over four
hours from start to finish, though two of those hours saw nothing happen as
intense rain caused the red flags to fly. When the cars were moving, though,
the action was breathtaking.
And Lewis Hamilton was very much in the
thick of it from the get-go. Just four laps had come and gone when he was
involved in a collision, spinning the Red Bull piloted by Mark Webber who ended up falling to
the back of the grid. But two laps later, it was game over – which no doubt
came with a dressing down from McLaren chief Ron Dennis.
That's because Jenson Button came a little too close to him this time, and the two teammates made their own life a lot more difficult. Hamilton's race was over, but Button made it to the pits after limping around the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve with a puncture.
He was already a long way behind race leader Sebastian Vettel, although he hadn't yet been cut off due to the safety car being deployed while the other McLaren was recovered. However, the bad news kept coming, when he was given a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Button had switched to intermediate tyres, which allowed him advance from 15th to eighth place, but when the weather worsened, he forced to switch back to full wets, and he was back in the pit lane for the third time. When the red flags were raised, he was in 10th place and appeared to be a long shot to do anything that day.He later revealed that he used the race
stoppage to admit to Hamilton that he had been at fault for their collision.
"I went to go and say I was really sorry about the incident," Button
said.
"He said 'I get it, you didn't see me, I don't put blame on you.' It was a great chat with Lewis because it meant I could focus on getting my head back in the game, getting ready for the restart."
When the action did resume, it took one lap for
another incident and he was back in the pits again, switching back to
intermediates on his fourth visit. He would be back soon – contact with Fernando
Alonso left the Spaniard beached and Button with a puncture and
damage to his front wing.
After that fifth visit to the garage – it
really was a miracle that Button finished at all that day – he was running dead
last and more than a minute behind Vettel, who still led amid all the chaos
behind him. The safety car let Button close the gap and set up the grandstand
finish that was about to come.
A brave call to be one of the first to
gamble on slick tyres paid off, as some others scrambled around on wets. He was
fourth with 15 laps to go, and as many seconds behind Vettel as he began to
dream of doing something special. Only Webber, who himself had recovered
admirably, and Michael Schumacher were between them
now.
A mistake from Webber allowed the Briton
through to third, and Schumacher was then passed with six laps to go. Vettel
locked up on the first corner of the final lap, giving Button the belief that
his race engineer had been trying to tell him could come true – he could win
this race.
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